A life in ... + TV and radio | The Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/culture/series/a-life-in+books/tvandradio
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A life in books: Clive Jameshttp://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/oct/10/clive-james-life-in-books
Clive James: Showbusiness has fuelled my work as a poet and a critic. The limelight is in my nature. I wasn't in any way shamed by living this double life<p>The reader of Clive James's memoirs is subjected to wave after wave of self-deprecation: here is Clive the provincial hick at Cambridge, here Clive the academic slacker, Clive the dull ham amid the brilliant Footlights, the drunken buffoon in Soho. It doesn't take long to dawn that this is a disguise for self-praise. In fact, the Clive of <em>May Week Was in June</em>, about his university days in the 1960s, and <em>North Face of Soho</em>, which recalls his London literary life a decade later, is more worldly beneath the bumbling exterior, more linguistically versatile, multitalented and successful than almost any of his peers.</p><p>In a further twist, however, the reader begins to suspect that it's all, including his projection into the firmament of TV stars, a cover for self-doubt. James never looked like a showbiz type – tubby, balding, clumsily dressed – but he fits at least one industry stereotype, in that his outer effervescence and likeable phrasemaking are bodyguards, stationed at the fortress of his ego to protect an eternal inner arriviste. And one of the many endearing things about him is that he is not slow to own up to it. &quot;That song I wrote in which the refrain goes, 'I'm a crying man that everyone calls Laughing Boy' – that's pretty well true.&quot;</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/oct/10/clive-james-life-in-books">Continue reading...</a>BooksPoetryComedyTV and radioCultureClive JamesLiterary criticismFri, 09 Oct 2009 23:05:26 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/oct/10/clive-james-life-in-booksEamonn McCabe/Eamonn McCabeClive James. Photograph: Eamonn McCabeInterview by James Campbell2009-10-09T23:05:26Z